[aetherson]

Uh, what? Are you claiming that if a company experiences a 10x (!) increase in valuation, that the dilution fully destroys that upside and the average developer experiences no increase in their comp? That is not even vaguely close to true in my experience.

[filoleg]

> Are you claiming that if a company experiences a 10x (!) increase in valuation, that the dilution fully destroys that upside and the average developer experiences no increase in their comp?

Not the person you are replying to, but it depends on how diluted it gets. If they print 9x of currently outstanding shares as the value goes 10x, it would result in those original shares being worth exactly the same as before the 10x jump.

But I agree with you overall, in terms of the actual reality. I don’t think any company with half a brain would do that.

[ponector]

I'm sure Sam's cut will go up x10. But there are many ways to screw options of the regular employees.

I'm not talking about key people, about first 50 employees, etc. Regular people.

[aetherson]

I have been the "regular people" at many companies that have increased in valuation. Dilution has never erased the gains of even much-more-modest increases in valuation. This sounds like paranoid fantasy to me.